Facebook’s security chief to depart for Stanford

By Sheera Frenkel and Kate Conger Published 3:05 pm PDT, Wednesday, August 1, 2018 When Facebook revealed Tuesday that it had identified a political influence campaign ahead of the November midterm elections, Chief Security Officer Alex Stamos was front-and-center in speaking on the issue. But Stamos will exit the social network this month, just as Facebook steps up its efforts to combat misinformation and foreign interference. Stamos, 39, said he planned to join Stanford in September as an adjunct professor and will also become part of a faculty working group called Information Warfare, where he will examine the role of security and technology in society. The timing is tricky as Facebook grapples with potential threats including election meddling and hackers. The New York Times reported in March that Stamos planned to leave in August and that his day-to-day responsibilities were reassigned to others in December, but the Menlo Park company does not plan to appoint a successor for chief security officer. In an internal Facebook post from January written by Stamos and obtained by the Times, he said the company’s security team was being reorganized and would no longer operate as a stand-alone entity. Instead, he wrote, Facebook’s security workers would be more closely aligned with the product and engineering teams and focus either on protecting the company’s corporate infrastructure or its users. Recommended Video: Now Playing: Facebook Bans Hundreds of Russian Accounts The tech giant removed more than 200 accounts linked to Russian trolls that played a role in influencing… [Read full story]